   I greatly resent having to be a biological organism and subject to all the poor engineering and design decisions that entails.

The first word of that sentence implies its absurdity quite beautifully. She resents, therefor she is.

And then this:

  Brains. After you reach adulthood, neurons don’t divide. If some of your neurons die—which happens every day—then they’re gone. If you get a brain injury, the other neurons will try to “learn around” the injury, but the neurons themselves are never replaced.

We need more neuroscience in schools! This summary is technically correct ofc, but to imply that the brain is missing some obviously-better option is absurd. We're meat that thinks, y'all; it's far from crap.

▲ someonebaggy 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

IIRC the slow loss of neurons is more than balanced by the additional fine-tuning - unless you get dementia, if course.

Loss of neurons isn't disastrous as long as it's not too many. Babies are born with several times more neurons than children have, and spend a few months letting all the useless ones die. Apparently it's better to start with a random tangle and prune it to shape (like cutting a box hedge) than to make a hedge grow in a box shape to begin with.

And IIRC brains can grow more neurons under some circumstances (certain drugs?) - they just normally don't.

	▲	rzzzt 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		"While questions remain regarding the precise extent, rate, and functional relevance of adult neurogenesis in the human brain, as well as important methodological considerations, multiple independent approaches now converge in support of its persistence throughout adulthood." https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S193459092...

▲ done_lurking 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Why is it absurd to say that the human brain could be better? That seems obviously true to me.

▲ dekhn 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

the claim isn't complete, either. Recent research has demonstrated adult neurogenesis (growth of new cells that originate from neural stem cells).